Customer Reviews

Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantanamo Bay

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While this is one of the most thoroughly researched books I've ever seen (more than 500+ endnotes with source documents that I found at the author's website at [...]it reads like a fast-paced, page turning novel. From the opening scene of attempted suicides and riots through the litany of unspeakable attacks that detainees commit on our American service members, author Cucullu kept me on the edge of my chair -- staying up all night to finish reading it.

I learned so much that I had never read before or seen on television, on a subject I've been following (so I thought). I'd thought there wasn't any legitimate legal procedures for detainees, yet Cucullu outlines proven processes that have seen more than 500 of the original 750 detainees released or transferred to other countries. What happens to them then? I learned that many, many of these people have gone back to al Qaeda and the Taliban and are still fighting against Americans, then right when I was reading Chapter 10 I heard on the evening news about one of those who were released a couple of years ago becoming a top al Qaeda leader in Yemen on the evening news.

Inside Gitmo pointed out that more than 500 USA civilian lawyers are representing these guys. That's more than two lawyers to every detainee. Most of them have been released while claiming to be goat herders and other innocents, only to return to killing and blowing things up again. It was hard to put the book down when CNN was finally reporting the same kind of news at the same time I was reading about it in the book.

We have also heard how terrible life is for detainees, but Cucullu explains in great detail what the soldiers serving there experience daily now. After a particularly sad episode of a mishandled and in fact abused detainee there, soldiers have been forbidden from even defending themselves. Instead, they take extreme abuse and physical attacks as part of their jobs. One poor young woman had her face smashed against the bars of the cell and has had to have multiple surgeries as a result. A nurse was punched in the face, breaking her nose. Women are called terrible names and threatened with rape and murder.

Cucullu finishes this excellent book by outlining the pros and cons of options that are in front of all of us right now. If I had it in my power I would make sure than President Obama read this book from cover to cover. And all our elected officials, too.

I strongly recommend this book to every American citizen who wants to know about what really is happening at Guantanamo, what has been covered up *not* by the government but by media reporters who are more interested in glamorizing the "plight" of terrorists while ignoring our own military medics, guards, and other Gitmo personnel.

Gordon Cucullu has written such a perceptive and clear description of the situtaion, it's hard for me to understand why everyone doesn't enthusiastically agree with his conclusions. His credentials are impeccable, and he has writing skills worthy of this critical subject. Have you read it, President Obama, and Attorney General Holder?

After finishing the Colonel's book, I'm more convinced than ever that
the political polarizations we are experiencing are extremely
dangerous to the security and wellbeing of this country. And I also
believe that the Colonel's integrity and objectivity in style and
content demonstrate the high standard that I believe all of us need
to practice in our own communications.

I hope everyone considers communicating with others in this way.
Thanks, Colonel, for your excellent report on GITMO and for setting the bar high!
--Susan Quinn
The Islamist Report

I agree with the previous reviewers that "Inside Gitmo" by Gordon Cucullu is a lucid account of the history of the Guantanmo Bay detention center, together with an examination of the public perception Gitmo. Most of the book is devoted to an account of the interviews Cucullu conducted (at his own expense) with Gitmo staff. These accounts include horrifying examples of systematic provocations by prisoners against the guards and medical personnel.

Cucullu is an excellent writer. He is orderly in presenting facts and moderate in drawing conclusions from the evidence he cites. His sympathies clearly lie with his fellow military personnel, but the value of the book from my perspective as a consumer of US news media, is in having solid facts in an hysterical and polemical atmosphere.

This book will make a US citizen proud of the values we all share, and proud of the discipline of our armed forces. More importantly, the book will provide well supported reassurances about the basic character of our military.

An excellent look at GITMO and how the detainees are treated and the despicable ways the detainees treat the military guards. Except for the fact that the worst of the worst are there, if one were to be imprisoned, GITMO would be the ideal place because no one imprisoned gets the white glove treatment in US prisons like the detainees. I think every critic should have to stay a month as a guard and then we would see what they had to say about GITMO. The one thing I disagree with is giving the detainees a 4200 calorie diet daily unless there are health reasons to do so. I feel bad for our military in the way the detainees treat them and also applaud our fine men and women for their professionalism and dedication in making GITMO the facility it really is despite the zealots and left-wing media who verbally trash it. Shame on some of the US attorneys for their despicable behavior against the US in handling the cases of the detainees for monetary profit. Goes to show that some people will do anything for a price even if it jeopardizes their freedoms and comforts. Make no mistake, you would be decapitated in an instance if you were no longer valuable to their cause.

Our media will not tell the whole story about Gitmo. Lt Col Cucullo goes behind the walls and tells the good and the bad. As the first reviewer stated, it is one of the most resourced books about this subject. Everyone should read this - that is, if they are interested in the facts.
On a personal note, my daughter is a Soldier in the Army and is friends with some of the Soldiers who did their deployment at Gitmo as guards and medics. I have listened to their stories of their duty there. Lt Col Cucullo validates much of what I have heard from those who were there about what they had to put up with from the detainees. These are not pleasant people and they do not want to be our friends. The discipline and courage of our young military members there is outstanding and should be told.
Please read this book and share it with others. Lt Col Cucullo does a fine job in telling the whole story from the conception of Gitmo to the present. Our young men and women in uniform have been tarnished by the "stories" about Gitmo that the media, and shamefully, our elected officials feel free to tell to further their agenda of either making money or getting votes.

If you want to know what has really happened at Guantanamo's detainee facilities and want to avoid the conspiracy whacko rubbish and self-serving lies of those released (while still being made aware of them) then this is the book for you. The author spoke to a wide spectrum of personnel involved in the facility, past and present, and actually VISITED Camp Delta and the now-defunct Camp X-Ray. Learn about the nature of the people who are held there... far from being innocent goatherds at the wrong place at the wrong time these are hardened Islamofascists who simply want to kill or be killed. Their version of Islam is death worship, plain and simple.
Also, the self-serving nature of the legal counsel attempting to secure "rights" for these insurgents and their actual conniving with the prisoners to help them in their despicable cause is also discussed and is very illuminating. Also the fact that al-Qaida actually trains their operatives to lie to the media in order to further goals, facts rarely discussed when statements by released detainees are repeated. Also, the fact that many of these released detainees return to the fight. Incredible.
The short bios of some of the inmates are especially telling, as well as the stories of some of the servicemembers involved in running the facility. If you automatically think the worst of America and its military you won't like this book. If you want to know what it's all really about, you'll love it.

I have never, and probably will never, read a book that reveals the contrast of good and evil as this book does. This is also a book that sheds a tremendous amount of the light of how cowardly and hypocritical the western media is.
good: I have even more respect for our military personnel. There are at least 30 examples of how our guards and commanders make sure that the detainees needs are accomodated and that they are treated in a respectful manner. History tells us that there are not many countries that make such an effort when enemy combatants are captured off the battlefield. (just ask Senator John McCain about this) I salute all the men and women who are and have helped in containing evil.
evil: This book has reinforced what I already know about the Jihadist and their goals. These men are very clever, ruthless, willful, dangerous, tribal minded, inhumane, violent, and our proud that they are doing their part in trying to kill infidels and make the world succumb to Sharia Law. Their willness to sacrifice themselves to kill or to make the west look bad through the media is part of what makes them so dangerous.
It is a shame westerners will ignore books like this. The ideological bubble that too many live in shields people from the truth about the world and GITMO. Please Mr. President read this book. Multiculturalism is wonderful! But what if one of those cultures' wants to destroy you?...think about it

The author destroys the myth that the people detained at Gitmo are "innocent goatherders". More Americans (and peope form other nations) need to read this and wake up to what we are dealing with; maybe then it will sink in that our issues with terrorism are real, and the problem is not going away simply because of who is currently occupying the White House.

This book is for my retired son-inlaw. Lt. Col. US Army. We are close and talk millitary a lot. Thanks a Lot.
Fred A. Crowley Army Vet.